FTC Told To Use ‘CommonSense’ In CU Regulation

WASHINGTON - (07/01/05) A contingent of lawmakers from Ohio andIllinois, including Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) haveasked the FTC to use common sense in its proposed regulationpertaining to how privately insured credit unions disclose theirinsurance status to members. Ohio Republican Reps. Deborah Pryce,Bob Ney, Steve LaTourette and Patrick Tiberi joined Hastert insigning the letter to FTC. “First, the rule appears to statethat credit unions would have to obtain a written acknowledgementfrom every depositor since September 1994 that the institution isnot federally insured,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter toFTC Chair Deborah Platt Majoras. “Congress deemed thatimpossible nearly a decade ago.” Instead, the lawmakers urgedFTC to allow new customers to either sign an acknowledgement cardin person or receive three first class mailings urging that a cardbe signed. The letter also suggests it would be impossible to putprivate insurance disclosures on ATMs that are not on the branchsite and that requiring privately insured CUs to alter a genericdeposit slip to include insurance disclosures could cost thousandsof dollars.